Outdoor Projector Screen Tutorial

Outdoor Movie Night




   On "Black Friday" my husband and I found an inexpensive family projector at Kohl's really cheap.  I don't even remember how cheap it was because it was almost 6 months ago and we only played with it a little because "winter was coming." (ha-ha for all my Game of Thrones fans)

   Anyways, we didn't have a projector screen just lying around.  The ones I found online were all in the hundreds, much like the projector's themselves cost and any that were not were in  a 40 inch screen size... not really what we wanted.  We wanted something substantial enough to throw a backyard movie drive in party once a month and it be magnificent!  Being the hands on type I am I went to work looking for a tutorial to make my own cheap, portable, and teardown version of what I was finding online. 
  I began scouring the Home Depot and even went to Wal-Mart hoping I would find something that would strike my DIY-in spark into a Ta-dah moment.   In the end I just got a few things that I thought might be a good starting point based on what I had seen online and got to work.  Well, with a lot of trial and error... a lot of trial and error... I finally satisfied my wants for an outdoor movie screen.  I wish I could say I did it all myself and most of it you will be able to do yourself, but the putting together of the pieces I would suggest getting a little help from friends and family.  Well, enough talk, let's get to work

Step One

Materials:

3 yards of any white opaque fabric

(I got vinyl and didn't have to sew down the edges but you could use black-out too)

Sewing machine 
Ruler

Scissors or Rolling blade

Pins

3 PVC Pipes cut down to 8 Ft long  keep the scraps

(whatever width you'd like but I'd suggest 1 1/2 round)

with 2 scrap pipe pieces cut into equal halves leaving four 1 Ft. PVC pieces

2 PVC Elbow joints

2 PVC T-joints

Twine or Sturdy rope

4 to 6 Tent Stakes 
and

a Rubber Mallet

Now it's time to sew.

Take your vinyl and sew down the sides with a seam about 4.5 inches wide.  This should leave enough space to put the pipe through the sides.  You may want to but don't have to sew a seam across the top with another piece of fabric.  I would suggest just buying a little extra vinyl so it matches and I would make the seam more like 5 to 5.5 inches wide so it will get around the elbow joints without struggle.  (something I didn't do but suggest is to leave a large enough gap on each side of the top seam so you don't struggle during the assembly process)

Step Two



After the sewing is done its time to set up all your piping.

This I had a lot of trial and error with the help of my family and dumb moments like from a sitcom of a pipe attaching at one side then popping out of the other and back again I realized I needed two people minimum and a rubber mallet.  This is like putting together a tent and you don't want the white to get dirty that's why I am suggesting Vinyl, easy clean up.

I know I should have taken more pictures but it really can't be simpler to explain and the picture kind of does is all.  The steps of assembly are the most important.

Step Three

1. Attach a PVC pipe to one Elbow joint.
2. Next you will want to set up your feet.  These will only partially support your projector so don't leave out the rope and tent stakes.  Take your T-joint and connect your 1 Ft pieces to the two opposite sides leaving the top joint open for the 8 Ft poles.  Make sure to mallet the pipe in or it will slip loose.
3. With the first PVC pipe you connected to the Elbow joint thread this piece across the longest seam of the fabric.  This will be the top of your projector screen.  Cap the end off with the other Elbow joint but make sure it is in the same angle as your other Elbow because it can be difficult to adjust after you mallet it tightly.
4. Now connect your feet to the other two pipes.
5. Lastly, thread the sides of the fabric over the other two pipes leaving the feet on the bottom and the joints to connect these at the top.  This is where it gets tricky and having a friend around to hold an end can really help out.  You may also find that the seams are not far enough apart to connect easily, just push it away if you can mallet them together then pull the fabric over the pipe.  It may be taught be it will be fine.

Last Step

The whole projector should be assembled and hopefully you have maneuvered the feet enough so it can stand up and if nature didn't do as it liked you would probably be done now but we are not.  We found that even in dry, hot Fresno, CA we needed a bit more support than 2 Ft feet so we stuck some plastic rope through the pipe and crossed it over to the other side of the pipe and then tacked it into the ground with tent stakes we found at Dick's Sporting goods.  If this is still not enough support you can also thread more rope from the corner joints in a upside down V to give it more tension from the wind.  Trust me it is all worth it to save a couple of hundred bucks on a proper movie screen and it is definitely better than your white sheets hung up on the side of the garage (although good it doesn't reflect quite as well).

So good luck trying it for yourself and if you have any helpful tips please share below.  Happy crafting everyone!

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